This preprint proposes a framework analyzing reflexive breakdown in regulatory relations, suggesting implications for understanding regulatory failures.
This preprint proposes a comparative analytic framework for identifying a recurring structural pattern in regulator-object relations, termed "reflexive breakdown." Rather than treating regulatory failure primarily as a decline in capacity, the paper analyzes cases in which regulatory mechanisms remain operational while their outputs reverse relative to their original objectives through endogenous feedback re-entry. Three grounded cases (government over-classification, the Challenger launch-review process, and allostatic load), one conditional theoretical illustration (precision-weighting dysregulation), and one boundary case (wildland fire suppression) are comparatively examined. The paper also distinguishes the proposed framework from systems dynamics, safety science, sociology, cybernetics, and related theories.
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Hanoi Towerz (2026) studied this question.
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